Ok so this was meant to be a normal weekend, nothing special, but by Friday arvo the kids were already bouncing off the walls and my wife looked at me and said we need to get out of the house or someone's not making it to Monday. You know the feeling.

We didnt really plan anything properly, like usual honestly. My sister in law kept saying just do the Blue Mountains, we always end up doing the Blue Mountains when we cant think of anything else, and my wife wanted a beach because the kids had basically turned feral in the backyard all week. We ended up doing a bit of both over the weekend and it actually worked out better than either idea on its own would have, mostly by accident.

Saturday we did the mountains. Everyone goes to Echo Point for the Three Sisters and look its lovely but my youngest lasted about three minutes before asking when we could leave, so if you've got littlies that's not really the move. Scenic World was the better call, the railway thing where it drops almost straight down, both kids were losing it laughing the whole way and my eldest made us go on it twice.

Honestly the bit i was dreading most wasnt the mountain itself it was the drive. Two hours up, tired cranky kids, then two hours back in the dark after a full day. My wife hadnt slept properly all week and I did not trust either of us on those bends coming down after dark, theres a few that genuinely scare me even when im not exhausted. So we actually booked a driver for that leg instead, first time we'd done that for a day trip rather than an airport run. Made a bigger difference than i expected, no one snapping at each other over missed turns, i actually got to look out the window for once instead of white knuckling the whole way. If your after a chauffeur service in Sydney for something like this its honestly worth it just for the sanity, doesnt need to be a special occasion.

Sunday morning we didnt really do much if im honest, everyone was wrecked from Saturday so we just stayed local and let the kids watch too much tv, which i am not going to pretend was some kind of parenting failure because sometimes that IS the plan.

By Sunday arvo we were restless again so we ended up going south instead, down to Wollongong, and this is the one nobody ever mentions when they talk about weekend spots which is strange because it might have actually been the best part of the whole thing. The drive down along the escarpment is stunning, proper jaw dropping in bits, and your at the beach under 90 minutes from home.

North Wollongong has this enclosed rock pool that's perfect if your kids arent confident swimmers yet, way less stressful than watching them near actual surf. We also found Puckeys Estate sort of by accident, theres a lagoon there and my son chased ducks around it for what felt like forty minutes straight while we actually got to sit and drink a coffee that was still warm by the time we finished it. Small win but you take what you can get with kids this age.

Sea Cliff Bridge is close by too if you've got older ones, mine's a teenager and even they put their phone down for the photos which says something.

Anyway the real thing I took from all this, and I didnt expect to be writing a whole life lesson about one random weekend, is that trying to cram the mountains and the coast into two days with no proper break in between is how everyone ends up snapping at each other. Space it out. And dont be too proud to get help with the driving bit if its going to wreck you, we probably should have done that years ago honestly.

Anyway if your stuck on what to do some weekend and you're within a couple hours of Sydney, dont sleep on Wollongong, everyone raves about the mountains and forgets its even there.